The Love of a Sich Rifleman

Y. Barnych

folk musical in 2 acts

Libretto by Y. Barnych, verses by Y. Shkumeliak

Odesa Theatre of Musical Comedy named after Mikhail Vodyanoy prepared a performance about the war during the war. But life, fortunately, is arranged in such a way that next to dramas and tragedies there are always many comedies, which is confirmed by the extremely high demand for a light genre in stressful situations.

The operetta "Sharika" with libretto and music by Yaroslav Barnych and words to songs by Yuriy Shkrumelyuk turned into the folk musical "The Love of a Sich Rifleman" in our theater - a romantic, full of humor and uncompromising patriotism story of the love of the archer Stepan to the Magyar girl Sharika.

The events take place during the First World War in Transcarpathia, where in a picturesque Magyar village, Stepan Balinsky, born from the suffering heart, finds the love of his life. Ahead of the main characters are difficult trials on the way to happiness, but the performance is light, cheerful, colored by the melodious music of Yaroslav Barnych, who himself was in the service in the Ukrainian archery.

The premiere of the operetta took place in 1934. With the advent of Soviet power, all of Barnych's operettas were banned. The composer emigrated to the USA. During the war, the piano, score and libretto of the operetta were lost and restored only in the USA, only in the mid-1990s, when Ukraine gained independence. The composer's daughter, Iryna Barnych-Dubas, was able to transfer the materials of the operettas "Sharika" and "Ksenya's Hutsulka" to the author's family.

The main characters, like the operetta itself, withstood the test of war and time, but did not go out, but on the contrary lit the fire of human happiness!

We will endure and light up together!